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Mining Rivals Rio Tinto, BHP
should iron out their differences

Updated Nov. 9, 2007 12:01 a.m. ET

A megamerger between Rio Tinto and its mining rival BHP Billiton would create a company with a market value of $350 billion -- the third-largest company on Dow Jones Global Titans index. And though Rio rebuffed BHP's initial approach on Thursday, bigger probably is better. No wonder the combined value of the two companies had risen by $10 billion as of Thursday afternoon.

A single giant mining company would be in a better position than two big enterprises to take on today's multibillion-dollar mining projects. Size also...